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Valentine’s Day Pie

With another Valentine’s Day comes another slew of tacky love themed promotions from chain restaurants. Over the past couple of years, chain restaurants all over the country have put out heart shaped dinners for Valentine’s Day, and this year is no different.

For the fourth year in a row Papa John’s is bringing out their heart-shaped pizza on February 14. Back in 2010, Papa John’s debuted their annual Valentine’s deal by offering a one topping thin crust heart-shaped pizza and a cinnapie for $15. The past few years have been such a success that they decided to bring the deal back for another year.

Another pizza joint that is joining in on this year’s fun is Pizza Hut, but they’ve got something else up their sleeves. Instead of joining in on the heart-shaped fun, Pizza Hut has decided to put out a pizza-scented perfume for Valentine’s Day. A free bottle of Eau de Pizza along with a $20 Pizza Hut gift card will be given out to 24 people each day from February 11 to the 13. In order to win, customers have to tweet at @PizzaHut with a reason they should win and the hashtag #LastMinuteLovers.

Pizza Hut is no stranger to the February 14th pandemonium. Last year they offered their Valentine’s Day Engagement Package for the first 10 customers who could afford it. At the measly price of $10,010, the package included a red ruby ring, limo service, flowers, fireworks show, photographer, videographer, and a Pizza Hut Dinner Box. As tacky as this package sounds, the company received about 800 serious inquiries within the first 24 hours of the promotion.

We will see how well this years promotions work for Papa John’s and Pizza Hut, but if history tells us anything, they will work out very well for the companies. Here’s to a beautiful day filled with love, romance, heart-shaped pizza and pizza-scented perfume. Hope y’all enjoy it!

4 thoughts on “Valentine’s Day Pie”

There is no doubt that based on the examples above, Pizza Hut is quite the pioneer in unique advertising. However, I would be interested to uncover the motives behind these particular advertising choices. It might seem that Pizza Hut choose perfume, for both the novelty and “shock” value of the item. Does Pizza Hut consistently opt for uncommon advertising techniques, or is this just a holiday that they feel they have the creative license to be particularly bold about? In juxtaposition, Papa John’s takes a conservative avenue with its heart shaped pizzas. Information regarding revenues from Valentine’s Day would be particularly intriguing, and answer the question of which pizza chain performed better, and quite possibly, provide a link of what advertising style works best for the particular industry. Realistically, it would seem that Papa John’s would make off with more profit. However, never underestimate the power of curiosity in the American consumer, and the thrill of the unknown, enticing the consumer to the brand.

I am curious as to who would have the audacity to purchase the engagement package from Pizza Hut? I feel like that is the cheesiest (pun intended) possible idea for something so important. I cannot imagine someone actually taking them up on this offer. But I think the ideas from both companies are unique in their own ways. Pizza Hut went for a distinctive approach with the perfume and Papa Johns stuck with an easy option. Giving credit where credit is due; this is definitely an interesting advertising move for both companies. I agree with Meghan that Papa Johns will see a much larger profit from their Valentine’s Day special than Pizza Hut. PJ’s idea is simple and cute (subjective – I’m aware).

I agree a lot with what Meghan, above, is saying. I would be very interested to see which company winds up more successful or with more profit after these advertising techniques. I would have to agree that Pizza Hut’s route is a lot more “out there” compared to Papa Johns. I think it is almost ironically funny that the pizza places are even doing specials for Valentine’s Day because, being a girl, I feel like that is something most girls/women would laugh at or even get mad at receiving on Valentine’s Day. I can’t tell if the special is supposed to be ironically funny on Papa JOhns part and just straight fowardly funny on Pizza Hut’s part. Who would go through one of the most special moment’s in one’s life of proposing only to risk an upset at the end of the moment with a Pizza Hut box…? All in all, I do think the advertisments and specials are smart even though they are quiet funny to me. I do think Papa John’s choice in technique would be more successful since it is general and could even go towards people who aren’t “celebrating” the holiday and just want a good pizza deal where are Pizza Hut’s not so much.

I am also curious to see which franchise brought in more money with their offers. When seriously considering which company would rake in more cash, I come to the conclusion that Papa Johns would win. I say this because, although it’s Valentines Day, a day for “lovers”, Papa Johns is not limiting themselves to a target audience of couples, but Pizza Hut is. A group of friends, poking fun at Valentines Day, in search of a good deal on pizza would not consider Pizza Hut’s deal, but realistically would buy a heart shaped pizza. Honestly, if I were craving pizza on Valentines Day, I would have been interested to see how the heart shaped pizza (and cinnapie) turned out. With regards to advertising, I think it’s clear that Pizza Hut was trying one up Papa Johns, but by doing so, they limited their business to couples while Papa John’s target audience is far more broad. Anyone can enjoy a heart shaped pizza.